For 54 minutes, the most eagerly-anticipated Merseyside derby in years sparked and spluttered like a set of defective Christmas tree lights. And then came Wayne Rooney. From Richard Williams at Anfield

Squat, bullet-headed and stubble-chinned, he entered the pitch with a prizefighter's swagger, an impression confirmed within a minute when he and Chris Kirkland converged on the ball outside the Liverpool area. The Liverpool goalkeeper got in his clearance a split second before their two bodies collided.

Rooney jumped straight to his feet and trotted back to the goalmouth to await the throw-in. Behind him Kirkland lay on the turf, awaiting the physio's arrival.

There was nothing unpleasant about the challenge, which merely confirmed the extraordinary physical presence of a player who has only just finished unwrapping the presents he received for his 17th birthday. His arrival as a star of the Premiership is certainly a better Christmas present than Everton's long-suffering supporters could have expected.

Already in his short career his ability to strike a crucial goal has settled the outcome of several matches in the top flight of English football.

He nearly did it again yesterday, after 73 minutes, when he controlled Alessandro Pistone's long throw from the left and beat Sami Hyypia with what we will soon be thinking of as a signature turn.

With the goal open, he clubbed a shot that would surely have found the net had it not taken a slight deflection off Stephane Henchoz's foot, enough to make it graze the top of the crossbar.

Had he scored yesterday, Rooney might well have drowned in the deluge of publicity. Liverpool, indeed, had cause to thank David Moyes for leaving him out of the starting line-up.

Instead Moyes waited until it became clear that Gerard Houllier's double substitution, coming six minutes into the second half, had raised the tempo of the game. By removing Djimi Traore and Salif Diao and inserting Emile Heskey and Vladimir Smicer, Houllier replaced two players with no experience of this particular battle with two whose awareness of the fixture's special demands were immediately apparent.

In the three minutes between their arrival and Rooney's, Heskey headed Steven Gerrard's free-kick narrowly wide at the far post and Smicer cleverly let Gerrard's pass run through his legs to Milan Baros on the edge of the area. Having been penned in their own territory for most of the first half by Everton's hard-running midfield, Liverpool finally looked ready to give their supporters something to cheer.

Moyes's decision to send on Rooney was a direct response to Houllier's move and as a result, the temperature of the game soared. No one was dwelling on the ball any more. The tackles began to bite. In particular, Liverpool's defenders added a yard of pace to every interception and started to clear the ball as though their lives depended on it.

But the player whose game immediately rose to meet the challenge was Gerrard, not so long ago Liverpool's own muscular teenage prodigy but recently lacking form.

There had been flashes of the old Gerrard late in the first half, but five minutes after Rooney's arrival he ran round the left flank of the Everton defence with all his familiar verve, clipping in a low cross which Alan Stubbs did well to intercept.

Rooney, meanwhile, was causing all sorts of trouble. Hyypia twice had to produce terrific tackles to stop him inside the area, while Henchoz was pulled out to the touchline and taunted into giving away a throw-in.

The galvanic effect of his presence contributed to the overheated behaviour of the final minutes, perhaps even to Gerrard's awful follow-through on Gary Naysmith. Rooney was quickly involved in the consequent mayhem.

His demeanour in that moment, his face blank as he swigged from a bottle, suggested that staying out of a fight does not come easily.

At the final whistle, Gerrard shook his hand and playfully cuffed him round the neck. From Michael Owen, however, Rooney received only the most cursory of handshakes. ... Guardian Service